Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge [Hardcover]

William G. Ouchi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1981

This four-month New York Times bestseller not only explains incredible Japanese productivity levels, but also offers a plan to revitalize corporate America. Ouchi outlines what we can learn from Japanese business success and how we can put it to use here in the U.S.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub (Sd) (April 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201055244
• ISBN-13: 978-0201055245
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,011,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening insight of Japanese organizational structure., February 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge (Paperback)

Japanese business has grown and thrived. The organizations are built on a paternal structure with lifetime employment at one company: virtually unheard of anymore in American business. The employees are trained and work in all facets of a company, not just in one department. They are expected to work long hours and not be home too early lest the neighbors think that they rank low in value at work and the honor of the family name be put in jeopardy. They begin training children as early as four years of age to groom them for the most prestigious universities.

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars garbage, August 31, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge (Hardcover)

Amazing to look back at the garbage that was written and eaten up by paranoid US management. Life time employment, company loyalty , and payment based on tenure are the exact things that have undone the Japanese companies. Sorry Bill but you should have picked a letter earlier in the alphabet.

4 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The opinion of a lazy american worker, June 10, 2001

By 

Ron Horowitz (Cin,OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge (Paperback)

William Ouchi claims that American productivity is stagnant or declining and he's right. But what he fails to mention is that corporations are firing their workforce here , in favor of nations where they can get people to work for slave wages, in order to increase productivity ( this done courtesy of american tax payer). And profits for these Companies are not stagnant or declining, but are reaching record-breaking highs. The fact that this is being done renders any of the points Ouchi makes in this book invalid. Why learn any lessons from Ouchi about how to increase productivity in the US when you can just fire your work force, pack up and go to another country while a lazy tax payer like myself foots the bill?